This article describes the development process of the National Defence Policy (NDP), which is
executed by the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) and government. In this chapter, it will touch on the
early development of the international political developments during and after the Cold War (1991),
the Southeast Asian region and threats that affect the development of the defense. In addition, this
paper describes the development process of the Malaysian defense policy adopted since 1957 to 2010.
The NDP formed since 1957 involves various aspects such as the importance of the region to Malaysia,
the concept of defense and the principle of national defense. This article clarify in detail on the aspects
as set out in the NDP in particular the principle of self-reliance defense, principal of regional
cooperation defense and the principle of the foreign aid defense. In addition, this paper also describes
the implementation of a number of defense strategies implemented by MAF as resistant barring
defense, forward defense, diplomacy defense, and total defense. To fine-tune the process of national
defense developmet, this chapter also will look on the efforts and development process by all branches of service of MAF which are Malaysian Army (MA), Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) and Royal
Malaysian Air Force (RMAF).
Background: Africa is facing the triple burden of communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and nutritional disorders. Multilateral institutions, bilateral arrangements, and philanthropies have historically privileged economic development over health concerns. That focus has resulted in weak health systems and inadequate preparedness when there are outbreaks of diseases. This review aims to understand the politics of disease control in Africa and global health diplomacy's (GHD's) critical role. Methods: A literature review was done in Medline/PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and Google scholar search engines. Keywords included MeSH and common terms related to the topics: "Politics," "disease control," "epidemics/ endemics," and "global health diplomacy" in the "African" context. The resources also included reports of World Health Organization, United Nations and resolutions of the World Health Assembly (WHA). Results: African countries continue to struggle in their attempts to build health systems for disease control that are robust enough to tackle the frequent epidemics that plague the continent. The politics of disease control requires the crafting of cooperative partnerships to accommodate the divergent interests of multiple actors. Recent outbreaks of COVID-19 and Ebola had a significant impact on African economies. It is extremely important to prioritize health in the African development agendas. The African Union (AU) should leverage the momentum of the rise of GHD to (i) navigate the politics of global health governance in an interconnected world(ii) develop robust preparedness and disease response strategies to tackle emerging and reemerging disease epidemics in the region (iii) address the linkages between health and broader human security issues driven by climate change-induced food, water, and other insecurities (iv) mobilize resources and capacities to train health officials in the craft of diplomacy. Conclusion: The AU, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and African Centres for Disease Control should harmonize their plans and strategies and align them towards a common goal that integrates health in African development agendas. The AU must innovatively harness the practice and tools of GHD towards developing the necessary partnerships with relevant actors in the global health arena to achieve the health targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.